Jane Silber is Chief Executive Officer at Canonical Ltd. since March 2010, replacing Mark Shuttleworth. Silber is also on the board of open data startup ScraperWiki, where she serves as chair.
Silber joined Canonical in July 2004, where her work has included leading the Ubuntu One project and ensuring that large organizations find Ubuntu "enterprise-ready". She partially attributes the increasing attention to user research and design in open source since 2009 to Canonical's leadership in this area.Her previous roles include Vice President of Interactive Television Company and Vice President of General Dynamics C4 Systems. She has also worked in Japan for Teijin Ltd conducting artificial intelligence research and product development, and in the US at General Health, a health risk assessment firm.
She holds an MBA degree from Oxford University's Saïd Business School, an MSc degree in Management of Technology from Vanderbilt University, where she concentrated on machine learning and artificial intelligence work, and a BSc degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Haverford College.
Janet L. Robinson (born June 11, 1950) is an American publishing executive who became president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company on December 27, 2004 and retired from that position on December 31, 2011.
New York Times:
She joined the Times Company in June 1983 as an account executive at Tennis magazine. Robinson was national resort and travel manager of Golf Digest/Tennis in May 1985 and the advertising director of Tennis magazine from September 1987 until August 1990.
Robinson served as group senior vice president for the advertising sales and marketing unit of company's Women's Magazine Group (which has since been sold) since January 1992, vice president and director of advertising from May until December 1994, senior vice president of the group from January 1995 until 1996, and she was senior vice president of advertising. In this capacity, Robinson was also responsible for overall advertising sales at the newspaper.
From February 2001 until January 2004, she served as senior vice president and held the position as president and general manager of The New York Times newspaper from 1996 until 2004.
On December 27, 2004, Robinson was named president and C.E.O. of The New York Times Company and elected as a director of the Company.
Robinson unexpectedly announced her year-end retirement from the Times on December 15, 2011 after twenty-eight years with the company. Her severance package valued at about $23 million was disclosed on March 9, 2012 in the company's regulatory filing. The reasons behind her retirement were undisclosed and fostered questions by business analysts and observers suggesting her departure resulted from personal conflicts with Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
Sulzberger Jr. filled in as C.E.O. of the Times Company until the search for a permanent successor was completed with the choice of Mark Thompson.
Other interests:
She is the chairman of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a member of International Advisory Board of Fleishman Hillard, Chairman of the Presidential Board of Trustees of Salve Regina University and a member of the Leadership Committee for The Lincoln Center Consolidated Corporate Fund. She is the Chair of the Ad Council Campaign Selection Committee, a Trustee for the University of Rhode Island Oceanography Graduate School and a Trustee of the Preservation Society of Newport County.
She was on the board of New England Sports Ventures, and was vice chairman of the board of the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, New Jersey. In 2008 she joined the advisory board for New York Women in Communications, Inc. (NYWICI). She was the chairman of the Advertising Council from 2004 until 2005, and served as chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Advertising Federation from 1999 until 2000. From 2001 to 2009 was on the board of the Newspaper Association of America.
Accolades:
She has been included many times in Forbes magazine’s list of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. She was included on Crain’s New York Business’s 100 Most Influential Women in New York City Business list and on its 50 Most Powerful Women in New York list. Robinson was named to Fortune magazine’s annual survey of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, and she was also named to the Financial Times’s list of 50 Top Women in World Business.
She received a 2009 National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) Women of Excellence award and a 2009 CEO Diversity Leadership Award from Diversity Best Practices, and she was named to the list of “Women Worth Watching in 2010” for Profiles in Diversity Journal. She has received the Association for Women in Communications, Inc., Matrix Award in April 1998, given to women who have distinguished themselves in the communications field for exceptional achievement, in this case, in the area of newspapers. In February 1997, she was named by Advertising Age as one of “25 Women to Watch” among the most prominent women in advertising, marketing and media.
He is the founder and CEO of the online merchant Amazon.com, Inc. The site started out as a seller of books before eventually expanding into a wide gamut of products. It is now the largest retailer in the Internet and considered as the model for online sales.
He is the youngest son of Sam and Helen Walton. A graduate of the Univesity of Arkansas, he is also the Chairman of Arvest Bank.
Jim Sinegal is the founder and CEO of Costco. This is the third-biggest retailer in the U.S.A. He is an amazing leader and has proved this through increased sales of a variety of goods to members.
Sinegal is known for treating his staff very well and ensures that clients are satisfied with goods and services offered as well as ensuring shareholders as pleases. He utilizes 40 weeks traveling to check Costco’s 582 shops within the globe, ensuring shoppers are pleased and staffs are working hard.
She comes from one of the richest families in Europe. She owns 17 percent of BMW, which she inherited when her husband passed away. She used to serve as part of the company’s Board of Supervisors. She is extremely active in socio-political affairs, pushing for initiatives in the fields of learning and journalism. She is also a supporter of research institutions on child cancer.
John A. Kaneb is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of HP Hood LLC as well as the president of the Catamount Companies.
Education and Service:
Kaneb graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics in 1956. From 1957-59, he served in the United States Navy.
Career:
Kaneb bought a controlling interest in Gulf Oil and tripled its sales to US$4.6 billion before selling it in 2005. The Kaneb family acquired HP Hood LLC in 1995 and increased its annual sales from US$600 million to about US$2.3 billion. Kaneb is also part owner of the Boston Red Sox; Hood blimps are often seen over home games.
Positions and appointments:
Besides his business work Kaneb is a Trustee Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is also an Emeritus Trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Emeritus Trustee and former Chairman of the Board of McLean Hospital. He has worked on other boards and groups including the Board of Fellows of the Harvard Medical School. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission in 2004.He is currently the vice-chair of that commission.
Kaneb is also Vice Chair Emeritus of the Finance Council, Chairman of the Clergy Funds Board and Vice Chair of the Catholic Schools Council of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. He served as Trustee Emeritus and Finance Committee Chair at Partners Healthcare from 1994-2000. Kaneb is a member of Harvard University's Executive Committee on University Resources.
John Michael Cryan (born 16 December 1960) is a British businessman and co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank AG in Frankfurt am Main, since 1 July 2015.
Early life:
John Michael Cryan was born in Harrogate on 16 December 1960. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Career:
Cryan worked for Arthur Andersen and then joined S.G. Warburg in London in 1987, before he was appointed group chief financial officer at UBS AG in September 2008. Cryan was head of UBS's financial institutions group. In the autumn of 2008, he advised the UBS Board of Directors and the Group Executive Board on the financial crisis.
In 2011 Cryan left UBS for personal reasons. In January 2012, he joined Singapore's investment company Temasek as president for Europe.
He is a non-executive director of Man Group since January 2015.
Cryan was appointed co-chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank in June 2015. He will share the position with Jürgen Fitschen until May 2016.
Personal life:
Cryan and his wife Mary purchased a home in Annapolis, Maryland, US, in 2009. They have a home in London as well, and no children. He speaks German fluently.
Mr. John Dixon has been Chief Executive Officer of David Jones Limited at Woolworths Holdings Limited since January 2016. Mr. Dixon served as an Executive Director of General Merchandise at Marks & Spencer Group plc from October 1, 2012 to July 2015, and also served as Member of its Management Board. Mr. Dixon served as an Executive Director of Food of Marks & Spencer Group plc since September 2009 and its Head of Retail since July 2012. Mr. Dixon served as a Director of M&S Direct at Marks & Spencer Group plc., and also served as its Director of Food since July 2008 and as Director of e-Commerce. Mr. Dixon served as an Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive of Stuart Rose since 2004. He served as an Executive where he headed up one of the three Food trading divisions comprising the fresh food categories since 2002. Mr. Dixon started his Marks and Spencer career in UK store management before moving to Paris for three years where he held a variety of commercial management roles in European stores and the Paris Head Office. Mr. Dixon joined UK Head Office in 1992 as a Food buyer in Prepared Foods, followed by Fresh Produce and Bakery before progressing to Category Manager of Fresh Produce. Mr. Dixon served as an Executive Director at Marks & Spencer Group plc from September 09, 2009 to July 2015.
John Dixon was until recently tipped as a top contender to replace the group chief executive, Marc Bolland. Dixon will be replaced as head of general merchandise by Steve Rowe, who was the head of food.
M&S revealed last week at its annual general meeting that its clothing and homeware sales had slipped again in the last three months.
In April, Dixon’s division unveiled its first rise in clothing sales for four years. Bolland, said sales of womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and home furnishings had all increased as shoppers perceived an improvement in style and quality at the chain.
But just a few weeks later, as Bolland unveiled the chain’s annual profits, he described the poor performance of Dixon’s non-food business during the previous 12 months as “not good enough”.
At the AGM, Bolland had to unveil a new decline in sales, bringing what some analysts had believed was a long-awaited reversal in the retailer’s fashion fortunes to an abrupt halt. And the decline could have been far worse but for buoyant sales online. Nick Bubb, a retail analyst, estimated that had it not been for the online boost, the underlying sales decline would have been up to 5%.
The new finance director, Helen Weir, and the store’s online boss, Laura Wade-Gery, are also said to be keen to take the top job. Dixon, who is estimated by Bloomberg to be earning £1m a year, has run the clothing and homewares business since 2012, when Kate Bostock left the post after a slump in sales. He had previously achieved a turnaround in the food business.
Dixon, whose father also worked for M&S, started on the bottom rung of the retailer’s business, moving on to become a food buyer.
By 2004 he had caught the eye of the then chief executive Stuart Rose, and was promoted to become his executive assistant. Dixon joined the board in September 2009 as head of food.
There has been recent speculation that Bolland is preparing to move on. He was previously chief executive of Morrisons and before that one of the most senior executives at Heineken.
At the recent shareholders’ meeting he faced a verbal onslaught from shareholders including Muriel Conway, who spent 25 years designing womenswear for M&S until the late 1990s. She said: “I could weep at what I see in stores today. Where’s the originality, flair, newness and good taste? The necklines are too low and the polos too high.”
In a statement on Thursday, Bolland thanked Dixon “for his contribution to the business” and said he was “delighted to appoint Steve [Rowe] to the role of executive director, general merchandise.”
Dixon said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed many happy and successful years at M&S. I now have the opportunity to become a chief executive and have therefore resigned from this great company.”
Dixon, whose father also worked at M&S, said: “I’m very excited to be taking on this role as CEO of David Jones. It’s a substantial business in its own right and lies at the heart of Australian society … I’m thoroughly looking forward to the challenge and my family and I are looking forward to living in Sydney. It’s a perfect fit for me.”
Dixon came to prominence at M&S after he caught the eye of Stuart Rose, the former chief executive, and became his executive assistant in 2004. He was promoted to M&S’s board as director of food five years later. After leading a successful turnaround of the food operations he moved to general merchandise.
His surprise departure came amid speculation that he had become frustrated with M&S after Steve Rowe, an internal rival, replaced him as the man viewed as most likely succeed Marc Bolland as chief executive. Rowe has since taken over Dixon’s job as head of clothing and homewares. There have been persistent rumours that Bolland is preparing to depart soon.
Ian Moir, chief executive of David Jones’s South African parent company, Woolworths Holdings, said: “John is a world-class retailer who brings with him a powerful combination of international food and fashion expertise supported by large scale retail systems and management experience.
“We have known John for many years through our close relationship with M&S and know him to be an inspiring and resilient leader who has traded successfully through the most difficult and competitive of conditions in the UK.”
His appointment is thought to be linked to David Jones’s plans to launch an up market food business.
Dixon joins a string of UK retail executives who have moved to Australia. Archie Norman kicked off the turnaround of Coles, the Australian supermarket business, where he brought in former Asda and Halfords executive Ian McLeod as managing director.
McLeod moved up to join the board of Coles’s parent company, Wesfarmers, before leaving to join the US supermarket chain Bi-Lo in January.
Former New Look, Littlewoods and Matalan boss Alistair McGeorge was hired to lead the Big W department store chain, but departed last month after less than a year in the role.